Children indulged as well, even if it was just the somewhat weak Egyptian beer. Actually beer may have been safer for them than water or even milk which were often infected by germs. Lichtheim Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, p. Petrie A History of Egypt Part Two, p. There were inns and bordellos where men could indulge and which were not frequented by respectable women. These had to pursue their pleasure in their own home. Both men and women were known to get intoxicated.

His not having shaved may denote that he was in mourning. On the other hand this was seemingly a student’s drawing, with all the puerile humour that entails. In the demotic story Ahmose and the Sailor the pharaoh had a night out, had supper with his wives and amused himself with them. He drank a great amount of wine, for the pharaoh had a desire for the Egyptian qlbj-wine. That night the pharaoh lay down to rest by the shore of the lake. He slept under a vine in the north. In the morning the pharaoh could not rise because of his great hang-over.

And don’t know what you are saying. Stand up saying: “Out with the drunk! As if you were a little child. Lichtheim, Ancient Records of Egypt, Volume II, p.

One effect of excessive alcohol consumption is the headache the morning after. The Roman Dio reported that the Egyptians used boiled cabbage and cabbage seeds against hang-overs. What drugs apart from alcohol were used is unclear. Traces of tetrahydrocannabinol have been found in mummies. Dr Svetla Balabanova of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Ulm found traces of cocaine and nicotine in 21st dynasty mummies , but it is unclear whether these are remains of drug use, stem from plants of the same families or are modern contaminations. Sex Nudity was an accepted part of Egyptian life and had little to do with sex. Representations of phalli are not infrequently found in temples as part of fertility scenes rather than sexual activity.

The purification rites priests had to undergo before entering their temple point to there having been a taboo on sex in sacred grounds. Virility and sex are closely connected with power. I am stronger than the lord of strength. I copulate and have power over millions. To enable a deceased man to do so, he needed his sexual organ.

Thus, “Mummy 1770”, who died during a brief encounter with a crocodile, was furnished with a false penis made of a roll of linen bandages when his original member could not be identified by the mummifiers. Sexual Mores Little is known about the sexual mores, and the rarity of any mention of sex has been variously interpreted as being the result of prudish attitudes or, conversely, of sex being an accepted, natural phenomenon not worthy of a special mention . Egyptian terms for the various kinds of sexual intercourse are ill defined. It is often unclear whether a word refers to rape or to adultery. Rape, if that is what Ptahhotep refers to, was not acceptable, any opposition to having intercourse should be respected. There is no cooling for what is in one’s body. If this passage is translated correctly, then paedophilia was apparently not evil by itself.